


Not Afraid

by VolxdoSioda



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 12:14:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20796464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Yusuke ponders on the matter of Akira.





	Not Afraid

Akira doesn't seem to realize it, but these days, there's a certain... predatory grace to his movements.

It isn't something Yusuke thinks to bring to their leader's attentions; not with all they've got on their plates at any given time. He knows outside of their Phantom Thief activities Akira works hard, for both himself and others, to prove his place in the world. To prove he is not the trouble-maker everyone sees him as. Yusuke's heard the whispers at the school, the soft murmurs that follow Akira like a shadow.

How he's dangerous. How he'll slit your throat as soon as look at you.

But Akira is... gentle. Exceedingly so. Patient and gentle, stern when needed, soft when required. He is the heart and soul of the Phantom Thieves, if Yusuke is being romantic - without him, their all-too-rigid structure would crumble. Ryuji is either hardheaded and stubborn or leering over the nearest pretty thing, if not stroking his own ego and thinking about the popularity of the Phantom Thieves. Morgana can be useful, but at times his pride can cause him to react in anger and frustration, lashing out in much the way Ryuji does. Ann has her moments of sheer ditziness, for all that she is a brillant girl who will surely go far if she plays her cards right, Makoto still has her moments of debilitating doubt, and Futaba and Haru both tend to regress into themselves if they get hit in the soft spots.

Yusuke knows he himself is not without flaw; man is not perfect, and he knows he often misses the more important social cues, doesn't grasp when people mean one thing. He knows he hones in on his art to such a degree that it frightens people at times. The amount of times he's gone to Akira's house only to be coaxed into staying the night for food have been too many to count.

But Akira? Akira _cares, _to a degree that almost would make a man weak at the knees. It _has _made Yusuke weak before, looking into Akira's eyes and finding the softest, most compassionate gaze. It makes him wonder what they did to deserve such a man looking out for all of them.

But lately, that softness has been waylaid in favor of the sharp razor-edge that is Joker's personality; the sharpness that comes out in arguments among the crowd, if Ryuji is too loud, or starts tearing into someone who doesn't deserve it. When enemies try to weasel their way out of the truth, or if it has simply been too long of a week, and Akira is flagging badly after listening to people whisper about him.

Akira is the softness; Joker the threat. A knife to the jugular to complement the hand gently cradling their skull. And while Yusuke has come to understand that _separate _and _together _where it concerns their leader don't always mean the same thing it means for the rest of them, he does not fear it.

How could he, when Joker has been there, striking and drawing attention away from his comrades, taunting the enemy to draw their fire when one of them has been grievously injured or knocked dizzy? Yusuke hauls in just as much trouble as Ryuji during battle, being one of their stronger physical attackers, but even he has had moments when an enemy caught him off-guard, and he's been sent flailing.

Joker has never once scolded him, or counted him as _worthless. _Instead he has stood firm over their bodies, defended them with hissed words like steel being slide from a sheath, and lashing out with blows that only the strongest Shadows survive. The amount of Shadows that come crawling to their leader, begging to be spared, have been too many to count. Joker has slain only those who give him cause to do so; all others are allowed their chance to escape and live another day.

So when Akira prowls, when his eyes seem to gleam golden in the shadows, when his lips shift just slightly, and there almost seems to be a baring of teeth to him, Yusuke does not flinch. Not from the hand, nor from the knife. 

He hasn't in the past, and he doesn't that morning, when he walks towards Leblanc, when he enters and bows to Sojiro, when Sojiro calls for Akira and there is no answer, so Sojiro says "Go on up," and he _does--_

Akira is standing in the middle of the room, his back to the stairway. Mona is nowhere to be seen.

Unthinking, blindly, Yusuke reaches out.

A single touch, flesh to flesh, is all it takes.

In a moment, the wind has been knocked out of him, as Akira, or Joker, or perhaps a merging of the two, whirl and drive him to the ground with a single smooth strike. There's a hand on his throat, pushing his head back, palm resting over his pulse. His legs and arms are trapped beneath Akira's own, and his eyes are unseeing, unmoving.

There is no blade here now, but the threat remains. Yusuke has not flinched away from that violence, and he does not flinch now. Merely draws breath beneath their hand, and waits to see what emerges from the stillness.

If he is to die, let Joker, let Akira be the one to take his life. Let the one who even now smiles at his ill-timed jokes, his misunderstandings, his eccentric nature, be the one to hold him down and decide his fate.

And Akira, he thinks, Akira sees and understands that. The quiet devotion that Yusuke will never speak out loud. This desire to pay back his kindness with the entirety of his own heart. Dark eyes blink at him at last, but the pupils are not yet focused - he's gone somewhere Yusuke can't follow. 

But he doesn't need to. The hand smooths down his neck, fingers coming to rest on the delicate curve of bone. A soft, single tap. Yusuke shudders, and relaxes further into the floor.

This is Joker, now. Joker, who handles things Akira can't, who knows violence and saves lives. Who watches them grow with a golden gaze and a smirk on his features. Together, and yet apart. One, and yet two.

Yusuke waits.

And eventually, he gets the smirk, softened slightly. The eyes moving, and this time there is life behind them.

"That," Joker says, "Was very foolish, little Fox."

"You won't hurt me," Yusuke says, and knows deep in his gut it's true. "Not willingly."

Joker hums, a soft thing. "No. But when my attention is busy drawing Akira back, and you sneak up on me? I could hurt you then. So very easily." His fingers curve around Yusuke's neck, still gentle, but no less a threat. "If I broke you wide open here in Leblanc, nobody would be able to put you back together."

Yusuke knows the thief can feel his racing pulse. The idea should inspire fear in him. Terror, even. A desire to get away. And yet for all the pounding of his pulse, this is where Yusuke belongs.

Joker peers down at him, and chuckles a little. "Eccentric, hm? I suppose that's one way to put it."

At last, the hand draws away. Joker stands, falls back - and smooth as silk, Akira takes his place.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." There likely won't even be a bruise. And even if there were, Yusuke would claim a Shadow did it. The team would believe that. 

Akira sighs. "Sorry. I just... got lost in my head. I was talking to _him, _about our next heist. You startled us both."

"He seemed rather pragmatic about it."

"He usually is. He leaves the worrying to me. He says you guys are strong enough to take his hits and bounce back - you have to be, or else you wouldn't still be here."

It warms something in Yusuke's chest, to hear that. "I'm glad he believes in our strength."

"He trusts you." Akira's gaze feels far too heavy. "And so do I. You know that, right?"

Trust. Yusuke once trusted a man who held himself beneath a sheepskin, like Akira does. But unlike Akira, that man had no qualms shucking the skin and taking a bite out of others when it suited him.

Akira might wear a sheepskin, but the wolf beneath is a different breed entirely, and Yusuke does not fear his fangs. 

"I know," he says, and he knows if he does get bitten, it will be welcomed.


End file.
